"With Opium, Barbara Hodgson has created an book that stands as the first illustrated history of opium culture. From the swaying poppies of India and the Middle East to the dimly lit, smoke-laden dens of Asia, Europe and North America, Hodgson traces the path of opium's creation and consumption, and describes how it has been alternately rhapsodized, demonized and anointed."--BOOK JACKET.